Simplifying Your LifeWritten by Lorraine Curry
The simple life is a life lived with a single focus. The more responsibilities a person has, more complicated life becomes. For generations focus for women was their families. I have often longed for past, thinking how wonderful if we could turn back clock to a simpler time. But, here we are, in a 21st-century world, and now most of us have at least two major responsibilities in our lives: 1) homes-families and 2) homeschooling. Some of us have added responsibility of a home business. Others are involved in a ministry or a church that takes a good portion of their time. You may even be attending college, working at a job or doing something else that divides your focus.If you feel overwhelmed by your responsibilities, here is a unique schedule that you might like to try. Since more can be accomplished when you concentrate on one thing at a time, do just that. Each week will have a different focus. That week most of your activities will be related to that major area, although there will be some things that will have to be done each day, whether or not they are part of that week’s focus. These daily activities will be few, and will include meals, dishes, Bible and devotions. Week 1 Homeschooling Week. This week, morning to evening you will focus on your children’s education. You will read homeschooling books privately, plan homeschooling, set goals, monitor progress, give tests, read aloud, hear narrations, do projects, research, give your children assignments and tasks for week(s) you will not be homeschooling. Having “Homeschooling Week” every other week for a year would give you sufficient hours “at task” but if your children can work independently, you could have this formal homeschooling week less often. Week 2 Cleaning Week. Yes you can clean for a week! I spent a whole month on our house one time! This is when you do major jobs— appliances, walls, scrubbing and perhaps even painting and sewing for home. See Easy Homeschooling Techniques for details on cleaning and organizing your home.
| | Becoming a More Consistent Parent – A Simple SuggestionWritten by Guy Harris
Consistency happens to be one of biggest challenges I personally face in working with my children. I understand that it is an important issue. I write about it. I teach it in my business. And still I struggle.I share question on almost every parent's mind : “How do I get my kids to do what I want them to do and not do what I don’t want them to do?” My struggle with consistency happens to be my weakness in this quest. One tool my wife and I have developed to address this issue is a family system. We got idea from our work in business world. The emotional ties are different. But when it comes to structure, families and businesses have a lot in common. They are both organizations of people with a common purpose. So, what can we learn from successful businesses that will help us build more successful families? Nearly every successful business has a well-defined system. Systems provide structure. Systems provide accountability. Systems provide mutual understanding of expectations. Systems make work easier. Systems are tools that allow ordinary people to obtain extraordinary results. Systems provide results most parents desire -- a consistent method to encourage good behaviors and to discourage bad ones. As you develop your family system you’ll want to define following items: - a simple set of family rules, - minimum acceptable behaviors, - unacceptable behaviors, - a way to reward good behaviors and penalize bad ones.
|
